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The Weekly Dose of Fat – March 30th, 2018

Let’s get loaded and stay out all night!

In Spring, you just can’t help being full of hope…The days are getting longer and temps are on the rise. All of our local Wisconsin trails are all still closed waiting for the frost to come out of the ground and that has me riding my Krampus on gravel more than anything else. This is a great time of year to apply some Tender Love & Care on your trusty fat bike. Our newest Bike Black Ribbon Test Pilot, Seth Bell (professional bicycle mechanic) posted a story this week about what you can do at home to help keep everything running smoothly on the fatty, but allow me to play the “what if?” game for a moment…What if you live in an apartment – or lack tools, time or mechanical aptitude, etc? That means that your precious will need to take a trip to the local bike shoppe. It can happen to anyone….as I found out this week when I ran Ten Beers through Dr. Bell’s eight-step spring maintenance program. The rear brake lever feedback on Ten Beers feels extra mushy and that’s most likely a symptom of air in the system that needs to be bled. It’s a fairly common occurrence, especially with Sram/Avid Hydraulic disc brakes. I don’t have a bleed kit, so I’m going to be visiting a bike shop. I live in a spot where there isn’t a good fat-bike shop anywhere close by, but if I drive 30-40 minutes in almost any direction, I can choose from a half a dozen shops and a couple of those shops, can even speak fluent corinthian-fatbikese….it’s not like that has any influence on their ability to bleed my rear brake. The thing that I’m trying to get to, is to cherish your bike mechanic. Since I moved, I miss being close enough to take my bike to Zion Cyclery, where mi amigo Grant would apply his mechanical wizardry. Now, where do I go? Which shop should I trust to work on Ten Beers? So if you’ve found your personal bike wizard, make sure that you’re showing proper tribute to them in the form of Beer, Cigarettes or Chocolate.

We have quite a few links (see below) and some scuttlebutt to share in this week’s dose of fat. Sources revealed that the 2019 Salsa line-up that’ll be announced at this year’s Saddledrive this summer is going to be quite loud. Terrene Tires is hinting that they’ll have a big announcement in April. Then there’s the news direct from Surly’s top dog that they’ll be releasing two new bike shaped objects in April. Next month we’ll be traveling out to Sea Otter, where we’ll get to see some newness and enjoy some California sunshine!

Sunday is April Fools Day and we can’t wait to see what that brings to the table.

 

LINKS

Fat Bikes Plow Ice in Siberia –
https://www.redbull.com/es-es/las-fatbikes-surcan-el-hielo-en-siberia

Who Stole the Goat? – https://stolengoat.com/

White Mountains 100 – Fairbanks AK – http://wm100.endurancenorth.org/home

Send us a postcard: Rat Race Bucket List series: Race to the Wreck –
https://www.facebook.com/events/630094817331253

BPR/ITI SIT-REP –
https://backofthepackracing.com/2018/03/26/iti-v2018-single-speeding-aint-easy-and-it-aint-cheap/

ITI 350 Winner – Neil Beltchenko  –
https://salsacycles.com/culture/interview_with_neil_beltchenko_2018_iti_champion/

Revelate Introduces the TERRAPIN SYSTEM 8L –
http://www.revelatedesigns.com/site/index.php/introducing-the-terrapin-system-8l/

Save The River Bottoms (MPLS) –
https://www.change.org/p/ann-lenczewski-stop-the-plan-to-put-a-paved-trail-in-the-minnesota-river-valley-between-the-bloomington-ferry-bridge-and-the-old-cedar-avenue-bridge/

Arizona Trail Race – http://topofusion.com/azt/300.php

 

NEXT WEEK

Next Friday we’ll present Show #134 of the Dose of Fat Podcast with special guests Corey and Heather Stelljes along with Spinner and Leia’s final debate on who won the Ice Queen Vs. Viking duel at Flat Bike Burpie. We’ll also start to shed some light on the Bike Black Ribbon Society’s – Klunker Ride (flyer below)

click the flyer for more information

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